CHESSNOID

I just read 3  articles on the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and the LA Times in regards to the Obama health care plans. All 3 articles  honestly seemed to plagiarized each other.  I like to read different sources to see the argument from both sides. I don’t think either side of the debate is actually right or wrong. Just depends what your situation is and how new legislation can possibly affect you money wise.

One issue that isn’t covered  is why the Obama administration is having such a difficult time gaining support.  I believe that his previous decisions with the stimulus packages and bailouts have siphoned his credibility. It is good that everyone is looking at this new proposed spending and figuring out a real way to justify the costs and to see what the real benefits are.  I think many are finding out that it doesn’t add up and the pressure to try to just put something together is no different than a high pressure car salesman trying to make a deal before you can figure things out.

Regardless of how the Obama administration, any part of the government, or the way the mainstream media purports that the stimulus packages and bailouts have been successful to some degree, the majority of the American public isn’t buying it.  The reason is we simply can not see any of the results on the street.

I do believe there is a problem with our health care system.  If you want to be educate yourself on the matter, then  spend an hour watching Michael Moore’s Sicko movie and you will get some insight how our system really works when you have big medical issues.

That being said I think the Obama administration needs to demonstrate  some success in handling the financial crisis at hand.  You can have as many economists, government agencies,  and financial gurus declare the recession is over and behind us but that won’t change the reality.  We still have a record rate of foreclosures (housing bust is still going strong), unemployment and joblessness is still getting worse not better, and many people on unemployment insurance  are running out of benefits and still have no job prospects.

As an American, I don’t want to hear excuses that the Obama administration inherited a bad economy because at this point it is just that: an Excuse.  I want to hear solutions.  I want to see the Obama campaign promises that were made become reality.  Obama has broken many of his  pledges and is starting to use the same tactics that Bush did.

At this point, I still see things getting worse. I personally believe the stimulus packages and all the bailouts were wasteful. Do you know how much the government is wastefully spending? We have a special TARP watchdog by the name of  Neil Barofsky to let us know.  I would venture to guess the 23.7 TRILLION dollars is enough to pay every tax paying American’s mortgage, auto loan, and credit cards with money left over to buy presents for 50 Christmas holidays.

(Bloomberg) –U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion, Barofsky Says

U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Treasury’s $700 billion bank-investment program represents a fraction of all federal support to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve, Barofsky said in a report released today.

“TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale and complexity,” Barofsky said in testimony prepared for a hearing tomorrow before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the U.S. has spent less than $2 trillion so far and that Barofsky’s estimates are flawed because they don’t take into account assets that back those programs or fees charged to recoup some costs shouldered by taxpayers.

“These estimates of potential exposures do not provide a useful framework for evaluating the potential cost of these programs,” Williams said. “This estimate includes programs at their hypothetical maximum size, and it was never likely that the programs would be maxed out at the same time.”

Barofsky’s estimates include $2.3 trillion in programs offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., $7.4 trillion in TARP and other aid from the Treasury and $7.2 trillion in federal money for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, credit unions, Veterans Affairs and other federal programs.

For goodness sake, the government can’t even account where all the money is going, yet they keep asking to spend more (fiscally irresponsible).

‘Falling Short’

“This administration promised an ‘unprecedented level’ of accountability and oversight, but as this report reveals, they are falling far short of that promise,” Representative Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the oversight committee, said in a statement. “The American people deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent.”

The Treasury has spent $441 billion of TARP funds so far and has allocated $202.1 billion more for other spending, according to Barofsky. In the nine months since Congress authorized TARP, Treasury has created 12 programs involving funds that may reach almost $3 trillion, he said.

When independent reports like this come out, it is hard to make an argument that the Obama administration’s other plans or ideas will work. Both Bush and Obama didn’t have a solid resume and it seems all Americans will be paying for that literally for years to come.